The Prior Art
For many years efforts have been made to protect the fruit ripening in the orchard from the depredations of birds, which are disposed to eat the fruit just as it ripens and before it can be picked. This is a particularly vexing problem to homeowners and small orchard proprietors. Whereas large commercial growers solve the problem by picking the green fruit long before it becomes attractive to birds, specialty growers and homeowners prefer to pick the fruit at its peak of ripeness (the quality of fruit picked green is not as good as tree-ripened fruit) for immediate consumption or for sale to the premium fruit market.
Consequently, there is a long history of efforts to find an ideal fruit tree protector: Typical of such efforts are patents to Hale, Pat. No. 2,197,929; Stevason, Pat. No. 1,780,950; Liljegran Pat. No. 1,072,339; McAdie, Pat. No. 994,083; Morris, Pat. No. 633,528; Zimmerman, Pat. No. 614,921; Shepherd, Pat. No. 427,921; Crow, Pat. No. 343,533 and Stahl Pat. No. 349,066. Although designed primarily for fumigating rather than protection, Culver, Pat. No. 367,134; Miller Pat. No. 510,079 and Scheuermann, Pat. No. 1,108,521 also show tree covers. Many provide access to the fruit without removing the entire cover but none provides a convenient, effortless access to the fruit in various parts of the tree. Some devices require machinery to install and remove, and many are awkward to handle.
Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to provide a tree protector that keeps birds away from the ripe fruit, is simple to install on the tree, is convenient to remove, but permits easy access by the grower to selected parts of the tree.